The government is committed to harnessing the power of digital technologies, with e-invoicing being a crucial tool to streamline core business operations. While e-invoicing technology has been available for some decades and can offer significant benefits to businesses in the form of increased efficiency, improved tax compliance and helping to address late payments, take-up in the UK has been relatively low. A fragmented approach has prevented businesses from unlocking the full benefits of this technology.

The consultation was published on 13 February 2025 and ran for 12 weeks. It received 342 responses, reflecting strong engagement and a wide range of perspectives from taxpayers, businesses, and industry bodies. Most responses came from businesses, ranging in size and across a variety of sectors. Though 76% of respondents were based solely in the UK, we also received responses from firms with an international presence.

Respondents widely acknowledged the benefits of e-invoicing for businesses and government alike. Key advantages included improved accuracy, reduced manual errors, and streamlined financial operations, which supports faster payments and healthier cash flow. Respondents highlighted that adopting e-invoicing improved processing time and reduced costs, especially in high-volume invoicing environments.

Other respondents expressed concerns about the challenges of implementation, costs of adopting e-invoicing, training needs for staff, and how e-invoicing would integrate with existing systems. Many respondents emphasised that a compulsory regime would drive meaningful adoption. However, concerns about interoperability, and cybersecurity highlighted the need for tailored support and sufficient lead-in time.

As announced at Budget 2025, the UK will introduce mandatory e-invoicing for all VAT invoices from 2029 and will publish a roadmap to implementing this mandate at Budget 2026. This will give business time to prepare. We continue to welcome stakeholder insights to help shape a strong and effective approach to e-invoicing that delivers real value to UK businesses.

We intend to work closely with businesses, representative bodies, tax professionals and software providers to develop the detail of the UK’s VAT e-invoicing regime to ensure that it delivers these benefits. Therefore, we will begin detailed stakeholder engagement in January 2026 to ensure stakeholder views and concerns are considered throughout the policy development process and can feed into developing both the roadmap and the full regime.